Step Forty, Recognize a Willing Ear
by moonswirl
Summary: Gleekathon, day 998c: They're now just one month away from the due date, and at school Kurt gets more than one present from Quinn. - Paper Heart series


_Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 47th cycle. Now cycle 48!_

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_**Cycle 48/Day 1000 special: **So, yes, in this cycle, a milestone I had to do something special for.  
In this cycle I'm passing my 1000th consecutive day of gleekathon! So for this, the cycle will feature:  
* 21-day/chapter story for the Sunshine Girls series (This Little Light of Mine)  
* 14-day/chapter story special for day 1000 (Let Me Tell You A Story)  
* One-shot installments from 12 series + 2 non-series  
* And for this cycle and this cycle alone (I swear), 7 'triple shift' days, with 3 chapters/stories going up in the day!_

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_**This is a triple shift day.** There will be two more uploads today: This Little Light of Mine, chapter 11 and Let Me Tell You A Story, chapter 11._

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**"Step Forty, Recognize a Willing Ear"  
Kurt & Brittany, Quinn  
Paper Heart series  
_(all series now listed under the communities tab in my profile)_  
**

___(A/N: Please read the info above the line! Thanks!)_

It had hit him that morning, when he saw his calendar. Brittany was due in a month. It didn't mean the baby would be born that very day, he could be early, or late, but even then… The days were ticking away and before long his son would come into the world. His son… The words still took him by surprise sometimes. He was about to be a father. All the months of preparation could not compare to the actual fact, the actual presence of that baby boy in his arms.

He was getting updates from her at home, with her lessons from Schuester carrying on. She was doing very well, all things considered. More than that, he could see how much good it was doing her, morally speaking. He didn't know that he had ever seen so much honest pride in herself. She was hitting her stride. She may not have been a genius, but none of them were, and it didn't mean her progress was any less of an achievement. He could also see the nearing due date was on her mind as much as his, as much as Santana's, and his dad, and the Pierces…

When he walked into the choir room, he felt someone's arm link with his. "Hey, got something for you, well, for Brittany," Quinn told him, holding up a bag.

"What is it?" he asked.

"More maternity clothes, home stretch kind of things," she explained, handing it to him.

"Right, thank you," he vaguely remembered Brittany mentioning it. "I'll get those to her this afternoon," he promised as they came to sit and she sat at his side. He got the sense she wanted to talk to him and he looked over.

"Look, I just wanted to say, I'm sure right now there are… a lot of things on your mind, I know, I've been there. I don't know that there are that many people here you can talk to who really have any idea." He didn't have to say it, she knew he agreed. "So, you know, you can talk to me." She paused. "I think Brittany was afraid to say anything at first because she thought it would upset me, but I… If I can help at all, I'd be happy to do it."

"Yeah, I kind of didn't want to put you through that," he admitted.

"Hey, it's fine," she promised. "Brittany and I have talked now, it's good." He looked into the bag at his feet.

"I remember that shirt, looked good on you," he pointed, and she smiled.

"Yeah, shame I can't wear it anymore though."

"No, I wouldn't recommend it," he shook his head and made her chuckle. "You know, as of today it's one month until she's due?" he told her. "It's crazy…" he breathed.

"You'll do great," she promised.

"You clearly have never seen me sleep deprived," he joked. "It's sort of like those last couple of weeks of school, and you just want to get there already because you're just running around waiting for that moment to come because you can't stand to be on the way, you want to be there already so you can start the next phase… Except this time it's not sun and swimming and no homework, it's a person and diapers and sleepless nights…"

"I didn't get to the diapers part," Quinn bowed her head, which briefly made Kurt feel bad, but she went on. "But, yeah, that was it," she agreed. He still looked at her with an apologetic look, but she just smiled. "I could tell you a couple things she might like right now, things she might need…"

"That'd be great actually. Thank you, Quinn, really…"

"No problem."

After Glee practice, he headed off to Brittany's house with Quinn's bag. He had been given a key the week before, which had been something he appreciated so much, knowing what it represented. Brittany had gotten one as well, even though for now she didn't need to use it all that much. He let himself in, finding her sitting on the couch with her feet propped up, while her eight-year-old sister Melinda was painting her toe nails.

"Hi!" Brittany reacted when she saw him and just missed her foot swiping her sister. "Oh, sorry…" she laughed while the girl grabbed the foot to continue. "She asked if she could," she explained to Kurt. "Want her to do yours next?" she asked, which made Melinda laugh. "We can match."

"As nice as that sounds, you wouldn't want to touch my feet, Mel, trust me," he told the girl, who shrugged and got back to work while Kurt sat. She was nearly done, and when she'd finished, she ran off to do her homework. That had been the deal. "Got this rom Quinn today," he showed her the bag, and she sat up.

"Awesome, thanks," she smiled, looking quickly through it. "How was Glee Club?" she asked.

"Oh, you know, same as usual, just with one noted absence," he looked to her and she smiled. "One month," he told her, and she let out a breath, still smiling, as though to say 'I know.'

"I was thinking, it's going to be October, maybe we can take him trick or treating."

"He won't have teeth," Kurt pointed out. "Also pretty sure candy is going to be off the table for a while," he went on.

"No, I know," she promised. "But think how cute he'll be in a costume," she went on, miming a tiny person.

"Yeah, cute," he pictured it and smiled. "Not so cute will be the people on the other side of those doors seeing the teenage parents with a baby."

"They won't know, he could be someone's brother. He'll look like us, won't he?" she pointed out.

"True," he had to nod.

"We could go as…" she thought.

"Everything I come up with would involve dressing him as a girl… Sleeping Beauty and the fairies, Dorothy, the Tin Man, the Scarecrow and the Lion… the Golden Girls…"

"Ninja Turtles! Or Teletubbies… Or we can get… three more and go as the seven dwarves. He can be Dopey." He had to laugh at the visuals all this put in his head, and she did, too. "We've got time," she shrugged.

"Less than we used to," he breathed.

"I just want to see him, and hold him…" she thought aloud, wiggling her blue-nailed toes, looking at him.

"You are not painting my nails," he held up a finger.

"Toe nails, they won't see," she tugged at his leg. "Come on, we'll match," she insisted.

"We have become way too familiar," he shook his head.

"I think we've gotten as familiar as we can get," she circled her finger over the air to indicated her belly, and she had him there. "Please?" she kept trying to get his leg up.

"Easy, easy, you're going to rip my pants off," he told her, and she laughed.

The next day at school, Kurt found Quinn at her locker. "Hey," she smiled.

"Brittany wanted me to tell you thanks for the clothes.

"No problem," she told him. "Got anything else?"

"Well, how would you feel about dressing as one of the seven dwarves on Halloween?" he asked, and she frowned, confused. "I'll tell you later," he brushed it off. "You should come by sometimes, I'm sure she'd love it."

"Yeah, definitely."

"She'd like the company…" he trailed off, and he had no idea how she guessed.

"What'd she do?" she asked, and he looked around.

"Well, between you and me, my toe nails are blue, and that's not a euphemism."

THE END

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******A/N: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.  
****In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are  
************always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!**


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